"The first thing we were looking at was some kind of e-grocer thing. We were looking on how to migrate out retail business into the Internet. And then we had a huge discussion and we started looking at each of the companies we handled. Then we started looking at how we could take these companies online," Abi explains.

"It is a natural progression in a way. I feel that if you don't take your company to the Net, you're going to be left behind and that's something we live by. We live life nowadays on the Net. I think we as the second-generation, are doing a lot of our businesses and conducting a lot of our daily living through the Net. So we saw the importance of that and brought it up with the older generation. And they're slowly learning it too, my dad being the first one," Christine says proudly.

Taking on the family business and working mostly with family members has tons of advantages, the two girls explain. For one, working with people they've known all their lives makes working towards a common goal easier. Abi says that in creating a dotcom, it's important to partner with someone who can add value to the idea of the company to make it successful. "For us it was all within the family. That's where the strength lies because we know how we all operate. We know each other's strengths are, we know where we should look and everybody sees the vision, so it's much stronger than that," she adds.

Christine agrees. "I love working with my family. I don't have to gauge what makes them tick because I've always known." She also adds that the knowledge and open-mindedness of the first-generation contributed a lot. They were given traditional Chinese Business knowledge, yet given enough freedom to try something new. "They always encouraged us to start our own business, of course with their guidance and within the family confines. They're not close-minded about it. You know how in some (Chinese) families the children want to start something; they have a great idea but then the parents say, 'No, we already have a business. You come here and take care of this business and don't even think about doing anything else.' I think what our parents gave us was the opportunity to really succeed on our own. On our own but under their guidance."

One disadvantage of working with the family? "You never stop working. You're working during dinner. While you're having dinner, you're talking about work. You're vacationing, you're talking about work," Christine laughs. According to her, the only time they don't talk about work is when there are visitors around.

"You have a board meeting during dinners, lunches, breakfast, meriendas, coffee, whatever," adds Abi. And that pretty much means they're working almost every waking hour since their family is almost always together. Indeed it is almost impossible for them to avoid each other. They all live together, as is the case with many Chinese families, with most of them split between two houses. The seven cousins lived together in one house when they were studying in Vancouver. Add to the fact that none of the seven are married and you can see how there's hardly any reason for them to be apart. "We always go out together. We see each other every day enough that you can notice if someone is growing a zit," jokes Abi.